Russian Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov blamed the West, significantly the US, for ‘a profound disaster’ within the UN system.
Ukraine’s worldwide allies blasted Russia throughout a United Nations Safety Council assembly chaired by Russia’s Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov that targeted on defending the rules of the UN’s constitution, which Moscow itself is accused of violating by invading Ukraine final yr.
In a observe to UN member states laying out the premise for the assembly on Monday, Russia denounced the “unipolar world order” that took impact after the top of the Chilly Warfare.
Earlier than the assembly, Lavrov stated the UN system was “enduring a profound disaster”, and accused Western nations, significantly america, of being accountable.
“It’s not all about Ukraine,” he informed reporters.
“It’s about how worldwide relations will proceed to be formed via the institution of a sound consensus on the idea of stability of pursuits or via aggressive and unstable development of Washington’s hegemony,” Lavrov stated.
Russia presently holds the month-to-month rotating presidency of the UN Safety Council and organised the assembly as one of many “signature” occasions of its tenure.
Addressing the assembly, Lavrov warned the world was at a threshold “probably much more harmful” than through the Chilly Warfare.
“The state of affairs is worsened with the lack of belief in multilateralism,” he stated. “Let’s name a spade a spade. No person allowed the Western minority to talk on behalf of all of humankind,” he added.
Sitting subsequent to Lavrov through the assembly, UN Secretary-Normal Antonio Guterres condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “violation” of worldwide legislation and the UN constitution.
The battle “is inflicting huge struggling and devastation to the nation and its folks, and including to the worldwide financial dislocation triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Guterres stated.
“The multilateral system is underneath larger pressure than at any time because the creation of the United Nations,” he stated. “Tensions between main powers are at an historic excessive. So are the dangers of battle, via misadventure or miscalculation.”
A string of Safety Council members, together with the US, France and the UK, condemned Russia for its battle on Ukraine.
“By organizing this debate Russia is making an attempt to painting itself as a defender of the UN constitution and multilateralism. Nothing may be farther from the reality. It’s cynical,” European Union Ambassador Olof Skoog stated.
The UK’s Ambassador Barbara Woodward stated the world has seen “what Russia’s thought of multilateralism means for the world” – the trampling of the UN Constitution and a battle that has introduced unimaginable struggling to Ukraine and been “an unmitigated catastrophe for Russia, too”.
Washington’s UN ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, clutched a replica of the UN constitution in her hand and confused the significance of defending its values.
“Our hypocritical convener as we speak, Russia, invaded its neighbour in Ukraine and struck on the coronary heart of the UN constitution,” Thomas-Greenfield informed the assembly.
Russia’s actions through the 14-month battle present that the invasion of Ukraine was not an remoted incident, she stated.
“This doesn’t simply concern Ukraine or Europe. It issues all of us. As a result of as we speak it’s Ukraine, However tomorrow it may very well be one other nation, one other small nation that’s invaded by its bigger neighbour.”